Talk:Medb/@comment-35002620-20180318032916/@comment-27346922-20180320201418
In mythology, she actually proved incredibly lucky, as very rarely did things ever not end up in her favor. While her husbands and lovers often got themselves killed fighting amongst themselves, Medb never really recieved any backlash from it herself. Furthermore she meets Cu Chulainn in battle multiple times, but is never harmed directly despite his repeated superhuman attacks against her. Instead she would be defended by a handmaiden or one of her pets who would at times miraculously intercept the attack in her stead (and of course immediately die), such as the time her pet stoat sitting on her shoulder took a rock to the face that Cu had slung at her from an impossible distance away, thereby saving her from a hole in her neck. Also while she is a bit of a bitch, there's actually some interesting backstory as to why she hates Ulster, because her first husband was Conchobar mac Nessa, the king of Ulster. Their marriage was described to be a horrible one as they did not get along, and she divorced him after their son was born due to irreconcilable differences. Her father (the High King of Ireland) then installed her as the Queen of Connacht after he deposed the current king Tinni mac Conri, who made the best of the situation by becoming her consort, and whom she was actually fond of. Then during an assembly of the High King's court, Conchobar, our erstwile heroic king of Ulster, decided to show his consideration for his ex-wife by violently raping her, which led to an immediate war between Ulster and Connacht where Tinni challenged Conchobar to single combat, and lost (leaving Medb single). Medb hated Conchobar for the rest of her life, and despised Ulster in general because of it, but even so her political actions were always initially solid. For instance in regards to the bull that kicked off the Ulster cycle, she initially attempted to purchase it for a very fair price, but after agreeing to sell it the owner reneged due to overhearing the gossip of the soldiers, breaking the deal and running off to Conchobar (his liege) asking for help now that he had changed his mind, which pissed Medb right off, and the rest is histo--er, uh, mythology? Incidentally in case anyone wondered what kind of class act Conchobar was, this was the man who made a farmer's wife who was heavily pregnant with twins run a footrace against horses for his amusement due to the boasts of her loving husband, which proved to be a bit of a mistake as the woman was Macha, secretly a goddess living a humble and happy life, and after winning the race she levied a curse so that all the men of Ulster would be crippled by labor pains for a week in their greatest time of need. This is what crippled all the warriors of Ulster during Medb's cattle war, leaving only the "boys" like teenage Cu Chulainn and the Youth Corps to defend them. Conchobar is also the king who features in the aptly named legend of "Deirdre of the Sorrows", which is just a depressingly miserable (yet popular) story that explains why Fergus turned his back on Ulster to join with Connacht, and why you should never trust the words of those with too much power.